Hello, I moved to Pune

I took a rather rash decision and moved to Pune at the end of January 2022. After almost 2 years of living at home this feels like the right call. The idea of moving to a new city began to scare me, at which point I knew that I had to move in order to preserve my sanity. The initial move was uneventful, but after getting an apartment, the real shit hits you in the face. It does take some calibration to get used to.

Generally when you are moving to a new city, you do not have any place to stay for the initial part. My office took care of this. They put me up in a fancy hotel which helped me immensely.

Apart from this, I did some initial research (with the help of a bunch of friends) as to where to look for a house/flat to rent. This time around I can actually afford to spend money on a private flat/house to rent that I do not have to share with other people. My salary has more or less doubled since my Mumbai days and the rents are quite cheaper than Mumbai. Living alone is a bit isolating, which is again something that I need to get used to.

I found a nice apartment that a colleague was renting out. This was the most lucky event in the whole thing. The apartment is nice. It is very close proximity to a hill and a trail nearby which makes for a very easy weekend getaway.

The public infrastructure in the city is quite interesting. Roads etc are nice, but public transit is very ineffective. Buses are late and very infrequent; though not unuseable. I've been commuting to work via buses for about 1 week now. It does work. The other mode of transport is basically auto-rickshaws which are quite expensive. For example, the route from my home to office costs 100 INR for 6/7 kms, while the same thing costs 15 INR in a bus.

The people here speak a lot of Marathi, even more than Mumabi. I am planning to pick up the language. Almost all public signage is in Marathi. Being able to read Devnagari is a real blessing here. I can comfortably get around the city by reading the signage.

The city is quite bicycle friendly. Most people who ride two-wheelers here do not wear safety equipment. The lack of helmets etc really worries me. I tried bicycling to work one day, which was fun; but also tiring. Pune isnt a flat city and the the route(s) to my workplace involve some rather significant climbing. Im sure not cycling for 2 years also affects this.

Another thing that you can notice very easily is the rampant use of green-energy. The buses run on CNG, electric vehicles etc are abundant. It is really encouraging to see all of these steps being taken at a city-level.

Office colleagues have been awesome. This is my first time in working in an organization this big. Lots of interesting things to look forward to.

The weather here is interesting at best. Mornings and evenings are cool, and the afternoon is very hot. The temparature difference between the high and the low is almost 15C which is a lot in my opinion. As usual, this much delta in the temp makes cycling real interesting.

This is my impression after being here for less than a month. Will update if anything changes. :)